Seahorses, I Love 'Em (& other Links of Interest)

- · Post by - » Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:24 am

pharazon wrote:Not appearing in commercials is a "human right"?

For apes, "appearing in commercials" (or circuses or films) means "being held in captivity and forced to do unnatural things." I really want this one to catch on: the use of chimps in the film industry has led to a countless array of grating, stupid and unfunny movies.

One of the links I posted a while ago noted how many qualities that were supposed to be uniquely "human" -- among them culture, morality, theory of mind, emotion -- turn out (surprise!) to be widely present in the animal kingdom. This a) should not have been that much of a surprise, and b) has serious ethical implications (you can't make fun of the animal-rights activist on your block anymore). Hopefully Spain is the beginning of a trend here.

brandrinn · Post by **brandrinn** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:08 am

Here's some scans a colleague of mine made from a National Geographic article on Korea in 1919. Note the insufferably smug style of the Western (OK, American) author. He just gets worse with every page; by the end I wouldn't be surprised if he named his companion "Friday" and tried to teach the locals about fire.

page 1
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Some highlights:
"The Korean peasant woman's neck muscles are as well developed for burden-bearing upon the head as are those of the southern darky."

"It was not a useless sacrifice of canine life, for it inspired the greatest respect for my firearms and, moreover, what remained of the dog was quickly boiling for the dinner of four hungry natives."

- · Post by - » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:08 am

brandrinn wrote:Here's some scans a colleague of mine made from a National Geographic article on Korea in 1919.

Always useful to have reminders around of how the colonial/imperialist mindset commonly expressed itself; ironically, if this voice was presented in fiction today, the writer would probably be accused of caricature. I've gotten as far as "He made an excellent football for some moments afterward . . . and from that day to the end of the trip 'Kim' was my devoted slave." Ahhh, for the days when <i>National Geographic</i> could teach a white man how to kick respect into the natives.

Neil Diamond's Shilo: Girl, Dog or Demon?

Prostitute fashion show in Madrid.

Walk softly and carry a big hunk of frozen chicken.

Jim Denevan creates the world's largest freehand drawing; it's designed to be ephemeral and will be wiped away by a rainstorm a short time later.

3-D holographic display is almost here!

Our Wonderful Nature looks at the mating habits of the water shrew. So, so awesome.

Dudicon · Post by **Dudicon** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 3:12 pm

ils wrote:3-D holographic display is almost here!

You know, I've seen probably a half-dozen different potential 3D display technologies discussed over the last couple of years. Most of them seem useful, all of them seem cool, but to me one has always stood out among the rest as the most, eh, "authentic". That would be this one. What's so cool about it is that it doesn't rely on trick mirrors or fancily designed screens; it doesn't depend on any specific viewing angle at all, nor require projecting multiple images. It just projects a fucking honest to god 3D image holy hell. The technology uses tightly focused, super high speed lasers to create little ephemeral balls of glowing plasma in the air. Honest to god voxels. As you can see, for the moment the images it can produce are crude, but that's the way these things go, and I expect it to get better and better. More than any other 3D projection system, this is the one I'm definitely keeping my eye on.

- · Post by - » Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:44 am

Dudicon wrote:More than any other 3D projection system, this is the one I'm definitely keeping my eye on.

Wow. That is indeed really cool.

brandrinn · Post by **brandrinn** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 2:50 am

ils wrote:
Dudicon wrote:More than any other 3D projection system, this is the one I'm definitely keeping my eye on.
Wow. That is indeed really cool.

So... what happens to the Nitrogen and Oxygen that is shot with the laser? The article doesn't really explain where the light energy is coming from. I mean, I assume it's not really plasma plasma, right? As in the stuff the sun is made of? It must be "plasma" in some other sense, right? A system that turns air into actual plasma would be slightly dangerous and consume enormous amounts of power.

Ketumak · Post by **Ketumak** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:02 am

Yeah, both those systems look impressive. Particularly the second one - I'd like to know more about the physics behind it as I didn't even know that was physical possible.

- · Post by - » Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:23 pm

brandrinn wrote:So... what happens to the Nitrogen and Oxygen that is shot with the laser? The article doesn't really explain where the light energy is coming from.

Well, it does: plasma emission. Which I believe is also used in some forms of spectroscopes, so presumably we're talking about very small, brief plasma charges. I can't pretend to know how it works but I don't see why that should be especially "dangerous" or consume "enormous amounts of power." That strikes me as kind of like saying there's no way you could make chess pieces out of rock, because that's the stuff mountains are made of.

America's economic downturn and rising xenophobia drives illegal immigrants to head back south. Wonder what old Jesse Helms would've made of this.

An old classic, I'm not sure if it's been posted here: the scambaiter who duped a group of Internet scammers into handwriting a copy of a Harry Potter novel.

Truck full of fire extinguishers catches fire. Isn't it ironic, don'tcha think?

jlyne · Post by **jlyne** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:31 pm

ils wrote: An old classic, I'm not sure if it's been posted here: the scambaiter who duped a group of Internet scammers into handwriting a copy of a Harry Potter novel.

My all time favourite scambaiting story is this one: http://419eater.com/html/okorie.htm

Summary: The scammer gets a duped into a tattoo, and admits to computer hacker Ali G that he is indeed a scammer!

Good times.

pharazon · Post by **pharazon** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:35 pm

ils wrote:
brandrinn wrote:So... what happens to the Nitrogen and Oxygen that is shot with the laser? The article doesn't really explain where the light energy is coming from.
Well, it does: plasma emission. Which I believe is also used in some forms of spectroscopes, so presumably we're talking about very small, brief plasma charges. I can't pretend to know how it works but I don't see why that should be especially "dangerous" or consume "enormous amounts of power." That strikes me as kind of like saying there's no way you could make chess pieces out of rock, because that's the stuff mountains are made of.

Also cf. Plasma lamps.

brandrinn · Post by **brandrinn** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:37 am

Ah, I've been reading about plasma, and it's not so scary after all. All I knew before was a) the sun is made out of plasma, b) raising matter to a new state usually takes a lot of energy, and c) when fusion scientists use plasma they use extremely elaborate means to keep it from destroying everything in the vicinity. But it turns out plasma is just ionized gas. It's only called a fourth state of matter because its properties differ in some ways from normal gases. It doesn't take a lot of energy to produce and you don't need a house-sized torus to safely contain it.

And after the light show is over, I guess the free electrons would just stick back on to the air molecules and everything would go back to normal.

ketske · Post by **ketske** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 1:11 pm

Actually, if you read the Wiki article, those plasma lamps can actually be pretty fucking dangerous.

- · Post by - » Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:51 pm

ketske wrote:Actually, if you read the Wiki article, those plasma lamps can actually be pretty fucking dangerous.

For example, they can interfere with the touch pad on your lap top, or cause a tiny burn on your finger if you hold it in just the right place for long enough.

Pretty terrifying stuff, I'll grant you, but is it as terrifying as the legendary animatronic band The Rock-a-Fire Explosion's performance of Usher's "Love In This Club"? I think we all know the answer.

ketske · Post by **ketske** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 8:32 pm

I suppose they're no more dangerous than a lava lamp.

Ollock · Post by **Ollock** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 9:56 pm

ils wrote:
ketske wrote:Actually, if you read the Wiki article, those plasma lamps can actually be pretty fucking dangerous.
For example, they can interfere with the touch pad on your lap top, or cause a tiny burn on your finger if you hold it in just the right place for long enough.

In other words:

long "Potential Hazards" section != pretty fucking dangerous

It helps to read the text.

- · Post by - » Sun Jul 06, 2008 11:31 pm

Further excellent music link: While My Ukelele Gently Weeps. Highly recommended.

ketske · Post by **ketske** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:01 am

I did, bOllock

- · Post by - » Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:06 am

Incidentally, where does that guys-on-Segways-with-machine-guns image come from?

ketske · Post by **ketske** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 1:11 am

Original source: dunno.
My pic source: www.icanhascheezburger.com
Caption source: Me.

brandrinn · Post by **brandrinn** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 6:51 am

FAIL!

(for comparison, this is what my favorite instrument is supposed to sound like: win and more win)

langover94 · Post by **langover94** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 10:06 am

^WHS.

Risla · Post by **Risla** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:43 pm

Blow up the beached dead whale!

ketske · Post by **ketske** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:51 pm

Pacific Northwest ingenuity at its worst.

Yiuel Raumbesrairc · Post by **Yiuel Raumbesrairc** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:00 pm

Disturbing. People enjoying a whale being blast off...

brandrinn · Post by **brandrinn** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:55 pm

oops, image replaced by 5h1t. Sorry.